Monday 3 June 2019

Accounts 4: at least I've spent less than the Post Office

The Queen's shilling, adjusted for inflation
This is my fourth set of "accounts" since this crowdfunded project was launched in July 2018. We know that, to date, the publicly-funded Post Office has spent at least £18.3m fighting this litigation. My reporting of it, I think, has been slightly better value for money.

If you want to see how the reporting of this story is developing financially, you can see previous "accounts" below:

1. 23 Dec 2018 - Talking Turkey (total cumulative net income - £10,642.52)
2. 10 Mar 2019 - Money Money Money (total cumulative net income - £11,373.98)
3. 17 Apr 2019 - Sterling Works (total cumulative net income - £13,271.79)

The figures are not rounded because both Kickstarter (which I used to launch this project) and PayPal (which I am using to keep it going) take a cut from every contribution before passing it on to me.

The latest

As of 1 June, the total gross income this project has generated is: £9,322 (Kickstarter) + £6,820 (PayPal) = £16,142 which is frankly amazing, so thank you to everyone who has donated everything from £2.50 to £1000 and quite a few significant chunks of money inbetween!

The total net income to date is £8,397 (Kickstarter) and £6,527.56 (PayPal) = £14,924.56

My expenditure so far is as follows:

38 days at £250 a day = £9500
Transcribing costs = £289.03
Mailing list management: £18.89

Total: £9807.92

This means I have £5116.64 left in the pot to cover the rest of the Horizon trial (T2), its outcome and the pre-trial hearings for T3 over summer. The third trial starts in November, and I suspect I will be working on a fundraising drive to try to bring in the cash in to cover that in the autumn.

Just so you know, my £250 day fee covers my time, food, travel, insurances, IT/phone (apart from the mailing list costs), taxes and just about ensures I've got enough left to feed the family and pay the mortgage.

In order to conserve money I do most (but not all) non-court work in my own time, and as such, since the last set of accounts on 17 April I have billed for one day's work, incurred the above transcription and mailing list costs and produced 23 pieces for the blog plus a similar number of secret emails.

Unfortunately I am going to be taking at least £3000 out of the pot over the next few weeks to cover the remainder of the Horizon trial, but I hope those of you who have contributed to this project feel you are getting value for money. If you have any concerns or queries I am happy to give you more detail about where the money goes and how it is spent - just get in touch via the message form in the right hand nav bar of this webpage.

If you have already contributed to this project, please do not donate again until I press the button on another round of official fundraising. I will be passing around the upturned cap in the autumn to see if I can take some more money off you.

If you haven't yet contributed to this project, I would be delighted if you could. The drop down menu below allows you to choose any sum from £2.50 to £1000 and then takes you through to a secure PayPal page to complete the transaction. If you wish to discuss donating more than £1000, please get in touch via the contact form on this website.
Choose an amount
Backers who contribute £20 or more will be put on the secret email list. If you'd like to see a few examples of the "secret" emails, take a look at some recent ones here:

The Daily Mail has a go
Trouble in SPDO country
Appeal application news and urgent request

Funky, huh? If you can afford to donate even just a few quid, I would be eternally grateful. You will be helping keep public-interest journalism alive and ensuring the ins and outs of this fascinating story get told.

If you do donate more than £20 and don't like the secret emails you can unsubscribe easily and immediately. I'll never trouble you again.

Finally, if you like these blog posts but don't want to pay any money, you can subscribe to get them in your email inbox for free using the box on the right hand side of this webpage. Just add your email address and you're away.

Thanks. Nick.